RIPTIDES is an intensive Masters of Science program that provides in-depth training in interdisciplinary science research, technology, communication and teaching skills, professional internship experience, career development workshops and dedicated program advising. This two year program prepares students to solve the critical challenges facing urbanized coastal ecosystems in a time of rapid global change with a focus on SF Bay. RIPTIDES is based at The Estuary & Ocean Science Center, SF State's marine research facility on The Bay.

Events

The Estuary & Ocean Science Center Film Series is presented in proud partnership with the International Ocean Film Festival [www.oceanfilmfest.org]. Chasing Coral is the 2nd film in the series and won the Audience Award for U.S. Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival.

Chasing Coral - Coral reefs are the nursery for all life in the oceans, a remarkable ecosystem that sustains us. Yet with carbon emissions warming the seas, a phenomenon called “coral bleaching”—a sign of mass coral death—has been accelerating around the world, and the public has no idea of the scale or implication of the catastrophe silently raging underwater.

Enter Jeff Orlowski, director of Chasing Ice, which created irrefutable, visual proof of the melting ice caps. Orlowski’s next project is similarly evidentiary and powerful. Chasing Coral taps into the collective will and wisdom of an ad man, a self-proclaimed coral nerd, top-notch camera designers, and renowned marine biologists as they invent the first time-lapse camera to record bleaching events as they happen. Unfortunately, the effort is anything but simple, and the team doggedly battles technical malfunctions and the force of nature in pursuit of their golden fleece: documenting the indisputable and tragic transformation below the waves. With its breathtaking photography, nail-biting suspense, and startling emotion, Chasing Coral is a dramatic revelation that won’t have audiences sitting idle for long. [1 hour 33 minutes]

Ask a Scientist! - featuring Dr. Frances Wilkerson, a biological oceanographer who studies microscopic plants that live in the ocean called phytoplankton. These tiny, single-celled microbes use light energy from the sun together with carbon dioxide and nutrients dissolved in seawater to grow and support most of the life in the sea. And some of these have a very special "symbiotic" relationship with corals too. Dr. Wilkerson teaches about phytoplankton, corals and other symbiotic relationships in the sea at SF State and knows many of the scientists in this film. Her research lab, based at the EOS Center, also studies oceanic carbon cycles and the impacts of global climate change on the ocean in San Francisco Bay, off the coast of California and in the equatorial Pacific.

The 15th Annual International Ocean Film Festival (IOFF) is the biggest festival of its kind in North America, featuring dozens of ocean-themed films by independent filmmakers from around our Blue Planet. For all info on SFIOFF click here: http://oceanfilmfest.org

News

Here the students are shown evaluating plant community establishment on the windward and leeward areas outside of seasonal pools at the Sears Point restoration project on San Pablo Bay. They, along with one of MSCI 709's intructors Dr. Kathy Boyer, have been talking about restoration features...